Millionaire in Checkfun 百萬格子小富翁
Director：Fu Yue 傅榆
The Check Fun Store is an innovative business model. Every store is divided into hundreds of small checks to display and sell a wide range of creative products provided by people who rent these checks. Thanks to its risk diversification nature, the check fun store business model proliferated in Taiwan when the financial crisis hit in 2007 to carry people through the global economic downturn. To start up a business in this tiny scale encouraged many people to give it a try that they were using their leisure hours or unemployment to create their own merchandises and hoped that these new products would succeed.
This documentary film records the start-up stories of three check owners in a cheerful way. It also witnesses the ups-and-downs of the check fun stores alongside the overall economic ups-and-downs. “Stone’s” family is running an auto parts manufacturing factory. She helps out in the factory while using the early morning and leisure hours after dinner to do her hand-made flower bouquets. Ya-Xin’s husband is selling used cars. She works at the dealership, too; meanwhile, she makes socks dolls after work. Li-Hui’s current job is to alter clothes and make uniforms at home. She loves to make bags by hands to get away from her boring works.
The worse the economy fares, the more popular the check fun stores are. On the other hand, once the economy starts to recover, the challenges become bigger for these check business undertakers. In this documentary film, we see how these witty hardworking check fun stores owners and the check leaseholders interacted, trying to pursue opportunities to redirect their lives through the check fun store experiences. Though the chances for them to become rich by such a small investment is extremely slim, the check fun store experiences win them senses of achievements and self esteem.
Director: Fu Yue
Born in 1982 in Taipei, Taiwan, (FU Yue, the Director) was graduated from the Department of Radio and Television of the National Chengchi University and the Graduate Institute of Sound and Image Studies of Tainan National University of Arts in 2008. She is now a professional documentary films worker and media researcher while keeping on recording the topics that interest her.
Filmography 2006 Socrates: Strawberry?
2008 Mirror!
2010 Millionaire in checkfun
From The Director
For unknown reasons, I was drawn to the “Check Fun stores” idea the first time I heard of it. It is probably because they are so full of Taiwanese characteristics, which makes them very different from their counterparts in Japan, Hong Kong and China. Though not being as delicate, they are abundant in vitality. Maybe, it is also for the same reason that while the Check Fun stores in other countries vanished quickly with the recovery of economy, the Check Fun stores in Taiwan are striving to survive after so many years that one can still spot some of them on the busy streets nowadays. I don’t know how long they can still stick around; however, with all my heart, I do hope these lovely, hardworking, clever Check Fun store owners and the check leaseholders will continue to pursue the turning-point opportunities in their lives.